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The University of California, Los Angeles, researchers say they can’t be certain that the differences were caused by smoking. It may be that having a thinner insula makes someone more likely to take up the habit.

However, the results suggest that smoking during the teenage years – a critical time for brain development – cause changes that make it more difficult to quit as an adult.

Researchers said they were shocked to find significant changes in the brains of people who started smoking when they were in their teens

Writing in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, researcher Professor Edythe London, described her results as ‘shocking’.

She added: ‘What was so striking was that we saw this relationship in young people.

‘It looks as if even in these very, very young kids, that to all intents and purposes look normal from the standpoint of brain culture, there is a link between the structure of the insula and the extent to which they smoke and become dependent.’